Chennai Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming has stated that CSK haven’t been able to read the Chepauk pitch well. During the IPL 2025 auction, CSK had filled their squad with spin, but the Chepauk pitch seemed to help the pacers more than the spinners during their second home game of IPL 2025. RCB’s Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar claimed combined figures of 7-0-41-4 to restrict CSK in their chase of 197 as well.
“Well, as we’ve been telling you for a number of years, there was no home advantage at Chepauk,” Fleming said after CSK faced their biggest defeat at home. “We’ve won away from home a couple of times. And we haven’t been able to read… we’ve been really honest with you. We haven’t been able to read the wickets here in the last couple of years. So, it’s not new. We are trying to come to grips each day with what we get, and we don’t know.”
ALSO READ: “Aap Lucknow ke naye nawab hain” – Aakash Chopra on Rishabh Pant’s appointment as LSG captain
However, the Chepauk pitches in IPL 2024 didn’t suit spin, which has been CSK’s strength. The fast bowlers took 74 wickets, whereas the spinners claimed only 25 at the venue last season as well. Meanwhile, on Friday, Fleming had expected the dew would help their chase. However, it didn’t as the surface got even slower in the second innings. And, CSK ended up losing by 50 runs.
“It’s not the Chepauk [of old] where you can just go in and play four spinners,” Stephen Fleming said. “We’re having to work really hard to try and understand what the nature of each pitch is, and it’s quite different. No, we didn’t get it right,” Fleming said. “It’s so hard to read, but we thought it was going to skid on with the dew, but it actually got a bit tacky. So, it certainly made it harder here.”
ALSO READ: “In the next T20 World Cup in India, he’ll be number one bowler” – Mohammad Kaif on Varun Chakravarthy
“We talk about firepower, we have firepower all the way through,” Stephen Fleming concluded. “I don’t understand this question. Just because we don’t swing from ball one and have a little bit of luck go away, we’ll see at the end. Just see at the end who wins it. It’s a positive brand of cricket, no doubt about it, but don’t discount us.”
